Florida at a glance
- License
- Broker license to rent for others, but renting Chapter 509-licensed transient lodging for others is exempt
- Trust account
- Florida escrow account by end of the 3rd business day; up to $5,000 broker funds per property management account
- Records kept
- 5 years
- Reconciliation
- Monthly written reconciliation, signed by the broker
Details and citations for each point are below.
Who needs a license
- A broker is anyone who, for another and for compensation, rents or offers to rent real property. Operating as a broker without an active license is prohibited.Fla. Stat. § 475.01; Fla. Stat. § 475.42
- Exempt: anyone who, for others and for compensation, rents or advertises for rent, for transient occupancy, a public lodging establishment licensed under Chapter 509. The exemption is tied to the unit holding its Chapter 509 license.Fla. Stat. § 475.011
- Also exempt: owners leasing their own property (unless they use someone paid per transaction), and salaried condominium or cooperative managers arranging rentals of up to one year.Fla. Stat. § 475.011
Short-term rental rules
- A vacation rental is a condo or co-op unit, or a house or dwelling of up to four family units, that is a transient public lodging establishment — rented more than three times a year for stays of less than 30 days.Fla. Stat. § 509.242; Fla. Stat. § 509.013
- Each public lodging establishment needs a license from the DBPR Division of Hotels and Restaurants. That property license is separate from a real estate license.Fla. Stat. § 509.241
The trust account
- Licensed brokers place money entrusted to them in an escrow account at a bank, credit union, savings and loan, trust company or title company with trust powers located in Florida, and the broker must be a signatory on every escrow account.Fla. Stat. § 475.25(1)(k); Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.008; Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.010
- “Immediately” means by the end of the third business day after receipt; Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays don’t count.Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.008
- No personal funds may be mixed in, except that a broker may keep up to $5,000 of personal or brokerage funds in each property management escrow account (up to $1,000 in a sales escrow account).Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.008; Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.010
- An interest-bearing escrow account needs the written permission of all parties, naming who receives the interest and when, and must be an insured account at a depository in Florida.Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.014
Advance rents and deposits
- A broker who receives a deposit has no right to it, except by the depositor’s written agreement, until the transaction closes.Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.011
- Florida’s residential security deposit statute (§ 83.49) sits in Part II of Chapter 83, which does not apply to transient occupancy in a hotel, condominium, motel or similar public lodging.Fla. Stat. § 83.42; Fla. Stat. § 83.49
Records and how long to keep them
- Brokers keep escrow records for at least five years from the date the money was received; records involved in a lawsuit are kept two years after it ends, with five years as the minimum.Fla. Stat. § 475.5015
- Records include deposit slips, bank statements and agreements, and an accurate account of each deposit transaction and each escrow bank account.Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.012
Reconciliation and ledgers
- Once a month, the broker has a written statement made comparing total trust liability with the reconciled bank balance of all trust accounts, and reviews, signs and dates it.Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.012
- The reconciliation lists at least the dates, bank and account details, balances, deposits in transit, outstanding checks and an itemized trust liability. Any difference is explained along with the corrective action taken.Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.012
Check with the Florida Real Estate Commission (DBPR Division of Real Estate)
We could not confirm these from a primary source, so we don’t state them as rules:
- Whether Chapter 509 or its rules set any trust or escrow handling for guest advance payments or damage deposits taken by a manager who is exempt under § 475.011(11) — we found none, but did not review all of Chapter 509 and its rules.
- Whether managing a vacation rental that lacks its Chapter 509 license loses the exemption — this follows from the statute’s wording; we found no Commission guidance on it.
- Recent vacation rental legislation (2024 onward) was not reviewed for this page.
Sources
Each source was read on 2026-10-25.
- Fla. Stat. § 475.01 — Florida Legislature
- Fla. Stat. § 475.011 — Florida Legislature
- Fla. Stat. § 475.25(1)(k) — Florida Legislature
- Fla. Stat. § 475.42 — Florida Legislature
- Fla. Stat. § 475.5015 — Florida Legislature
- Fla. Stat. § 509.013 — Florida Legislature
- Fla. Stat. § 509.241 — Florida Legislature
- Fla. Stat. § 509.242 — Florida Legislature
- Fla. Stat. § 83.42 — Florida Legislature
- Fla. Stat. § 83.49 — Florida Legislature
- Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.008 — Florida Department of State
- Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.010 — Florida Department of State
- Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.011 — Florida Department of State
- Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.012 — Florida Department of State
- Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-14.014 — Florida Department of State
The reconciliation itself
Whatever your state’s rules, the monthly check is the same idea: the bank, your books and what you hold for each owner and guest should agree. Our three-way reconciliation guide walks through it with a free worksheet. If your reservations run on VacayOps, trust accounting is part of the Full Platform: guest payments are recorded into trust, owner statements build each owner’s balance, and the month’s reconciliation is signed off and exported as a PDF for your accountant. VacayOps records and reconciles the money in your own bank and processor accounts. It never holds or moves funds.